Art History: Oaxacan Woodcarving

I was excited to introduce the kids to something close to my heart, Alebrejas. I have been collecting these beautiful painted carvings for about 10 years. I took in my collection so they could hold them and touch them rather than look at pictures of them. You would have thought it was Christmas or fireworks were going off, "OOOHHH AHHHHH". They each got to hold their favorite while I read the beautiful book Dream Carver.

I created basic paper shapes for the children to draw their patterns on or they could create their own shape. They had gel pens and markers to draw with... of course the gel pens were the most popular.

Art History: Matisse Paper Cuts

To add variety to our medium, We studied Matisse's Paper Cuts this week. As Matisse aged, he "painted" with the colored paper. The children enjoyed hearing how he adapted his art as his eye site and health decreased. He did not give it up, he just discovered new ways to create. A great lesson in itself. We read and looked through 3 books; A Bird or Two: A Story about Henri Matisse, Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors, and Matisse; Cut-Out Fun with Matisse. The children also had fun trying to guess the titles of some of his simpler pieces.

The children had more trouble starting this project than any of the others. It suprised me. I thought it would be the easiest... cut out some shapes and glue them on the base paper. After a few minutes they finally dug in and started creating. We just used scissors, glue, and colored paper.

Art History: Cave Drawings

One of the children's favorite Coop lessons this session was Cave Drawings. They were amazed by the size and wondered as to their creation. Were the drawings a history? Were the drawings their wishes and hopes for the hunt? We looked at Painters of the Caves. I was also going to read Maria De Sautuola: Discoverer of the Bulls in the Cave but ran out of time.

The children created their own drawings on paper grocery sacks with charcoal and pastels. I sprayed them with cheap hairspray when they finished to keep them from smearing.

Art History: John James Audubon

This weeks Coop class was about John James Audubon. We read The Boy Who Drew Birds and learned 2 things. One, John drew everyday and on his birthday every year he would burn all of his work because none, he felt, was good enough to keep. Two, Audubon was the first to tag birds to see if they returned to their nesting grounds. The kids were fascinated. They really enjoyed looking at his work.

Our hands on project was a watercolor pencil painting of a bird. We did a few step by step bird drawings on white boards before taking to the watercolor paper.

Art History: Totems

This semester my Hands on Art History Class focused on pieces that contained animals. This week we looked at Totem Poles.

We discussed how they are often like a family tree and that the animals show characteristics of the family members. I showed them many examples from the web and we glanced through the book Totem Pole.

The children created their own animal to add to our class totem. They were created from soup cans which were covered in brown paper. We then drilled a hole in the bottom and threaded them onto a dowel rod to stabilize them.

Art History- Alexander Calder

Our final Artist this session was Alexander Calder.
I read the kids the beautiful book, Sandy's Circus.
Then we looked at a gallery of his work... it was very inspiring
and needed no instruction or motivation from me.

I scattered the table with telephone wire, pipe cleaners, and foam shapes and they went at it. We ended up with several snakes and spiders but also some rabbits, designs, and mobiles.

Art History- Art Show

I displayed the childrens' art work at the End of the Year program.
They were so proud of it! And I was proud of them.

Art History: Jacob Lawrence

This week we studied one of my favorite artist Jacob Lawrence. The children listened, I am ever amazed, intently and asked many questions as I read Jacob Lawrence (Getting to Know Great Artists). It was a drier read than the other books we have read but it provided a wealth of information at their level.

Other books we looked at:
Harriet & the Promised Land
Story Painter
The Great Migration
Toussaint L' Ouverture
I See You, I See Myself: The Young Life of Jacob Lawrence

After we explored the life and work of Lawrence, we explored the method of linocut printmaking. I showed them the tools and examples of my printmaking days. We discussed how artists sign prints with a number set, title, and signature. Then I showed them how we could create similar prints without the sharp tools.

Foam Prints
Supplies
Plate (smooth foam grocery trays with rims trimmed off)
Stylist (ball point pin, dull pencil, )
Ink (tempera paint)
Brayer ( brayer, a foam brush might work)
Paper
pencil

Use your stylist to draw on the plate.
Then squirt some ink onto a flat surface (tray) and load the brayer.
Roll out the ink onto the plate. Turn plate over onto center of paper and rub the plate to ensure good contact.
Peel off and sign the print. Repeat.

You can find another explanation of this method here.

Art History: Georgia O'Keeffe

Today the children listened as I read My Name is Georgia by Jeanette Winters. They were engrossed. We also glanced inside Georgia's Bones and Georgia O''Keeffe. After reading we looked at the gallery pictures and discussed the subjects she chose and the size she painted. One of her cloud paintings is 92" x 288"... WOW!

This weeks project was tissue paper paintings.

Supplies
paper
tissue paper
liquid starch
paint brush
small cups or egg carton cup into individual cups

Have children tear a circle out of tissue paper... bigger than a 1/2 dollar.
paint a circle of starch on the paper and place tissue circle on top, adding another coat of starch on top. The starch glues down the paper and sometimes (depending on tthe tissue) bleeds the color giving it a paintish quality.

Tear long petal pieces and repeat the starch painting process by placing them around the center circle. If you have a perfectionist who stresses out with the tearing... give them scissors.

flowers could be made more complex but with k-2 kiddos the radial design seems the easiest and most successful.
I stressed the difference between enough starch on the paper and gloopy, runny glops. I painted on the paper and asked them if it was gloopy and running off the page... Nooo. Is the tissue all sticking down.... yesss. I did this with a couple of pieces before I let them go on their own.

Art History: Jackson Pollock

I will be at the Midwest Homeschooling Convention during our next class. These are the lesson plans I wrote for my wonderful sub to present while I am gone.

Jackson Pollock

During Class

Invite kids to sit in front of the gallery. Remind them that all artists are different and that this one a lot of people think is REALLY different but art is an artists voice in picture… let’s listen to what Jackson Pollock is trying to say.

Read: Action Jackson… if you need to paraphrase some of the long passages feel free.

Look at the gallery

*point out all the paint cans in the barn… wow that’s a lot of paint

*which painting do they like the best? Why?

*which painting do they not like least? Why?

Yarn- select 4 children to stand up and hold a corner of the yarn rectangle. This is size of many of Pollock’s Drip Paintings. Lay it down; can the whole class fit inside? (standing, laying side by side, sitting…)

Project- Marble Painting -have students go to their seats and watch you make a painting first.

1. Write you name in the bottom right hand corner with the marker

2. Turn the paper over and place in the box, make sure the name is on the back or you won’t know whose is whose.

3. Place one marble in each color paint and softly stir around

4. Pick out marble with plastic spoon, taking care not to slop paint everywhere or pick up spoonfuls of paint… just the marble.

5. Place the marbles on the paper in the box

6. Roll the box around and back and forth … watching the magic before your eyes.

7. When finished, put marbles back in the paint; peel the painting out of the box and place painting on the papered table.

8. Repeat. They can do as many as time, interest, and paper allows for. It is a quick project. Keep one painting for me. Let them take the rest home.

Optional Project- if you need something else to fill time or attentions…. Straw painting, this one takes a bit longer and can be messier.

*Write you name in the bottom right hand corner with the marker

*Turn the paper over and place in the box, make sure the name is on the back or you won’t know whose is whose

*Place paint in jar, add a little water to thin.

*Place straw in jar and put finger over the end to pick up some paint

*Drop paint on paper and blow. DON’T SUCK!! When done add another color and repeat.

*When finished, put straws on paper towel, peel the painting out of the box, and place painting on the papered table.

*Repeat

Art History: Artist's Eyes

I am teaching a five week hands on Art History class for our Coop. I promised one of my virtual friends that I would share these lessons here. I hope you enjoy them!

Lesson 1- Artist's Eyes

Objectives
Art is a personal thing to the artist who is creating it. They are placing a piece of themselves into their work. So whether we love, hate it, or a totally baffled by it; you need to realize how personal it is.

Every artist is different so even if they capture the same subject in their work the finished project will be different.

Activities

Similar but Different
*Discussed how the children were similar (age, homeschool, geography...)
*Then gave each child identical papers and choice of identical drawing materials and had them draw the following: Blue Bird, Red Heart, Yellow Smiley Face, Green Circle, Brown Rectangle, Purple Triangle.
*Then with their drawings, we stood in a circle and held our drawings; Why are they different?
We had the same instructions, materials...

Artist's Eyes
*Just like our drawings were different, artist can create pieces about identical subjects but they will be different. We discussed similarities and differences in the works themed Madonna & Child and The Good Samaritan. (Not all of these images are identical to my posters but very similar.)

The Art Lesson by Tomie DePaola
*To prepare the kids for the fact that we will be making works inspired by Famous Artists and not just whatever they want and that this is a way of learning art, I read them the Art Lesson.


Name Plates
I will be keeping one piece each week to display at our end of the year concert so I let the kids decorate a name plate for my portfolio... any way they wanted.